What's Patience Got To Do With It?

The primary question tomorrow will be the speech’s impact on campaign 2004 - and where the $87 billion will come from. It’s pretty simple really since Bush has made clear he wants to make tax cuts permanent. And would some enterprising journalist do me two favors: find the captain who wrote that letter and more importantly verify who exactly is attacking our soldiers in Iraq. Simply stated, Bush isn’t all that credible when it comes to citing such facts in his speeches.

What continues to trouble me is the subtle - and sometimes not so subtle as in tonight’s speech - insistence that the war with Iraq is about terrorism. When did Iraq become the “central front” of this war that started after 9/11? If that’s the case, his military advisors aren’t doing a very good job.

Tonight’s speech was just another example of the rhetoric of fear that the Bush administration continues to pedal in its misguided attempt to silence anyone who questions it by labeling dissent as unpatriotic. It’s a rhetoric that I for one reject as soundly as I hope the American people reject Bush II next year. We’ve met the enemy at the gate - and it’s GWB.